The Presidency on Saturday denied claims that it will run four budgets in the 2024 fiscal year.
This came as the President’s Senior Special Assistant on Media and Publicity, Mr. Temitope Ajayi, reacted to a thread of tweets by former Anambra State Governor, Peter Obi, who alleged that the Tinubu-led government was running four budgets concurrently.
Ajayi wrote “Yesterday, @BudgITng raised a false alarm on the basis of rumours that FG is planning a 2024 supplementary budget.
“It is important to state that the FG is not planning to run 4 budgets within a fiscal year as being alleged.
“The National Assembly only approved that implementation of the capital components of 2023 budget and 2023 supplementary should be extended to December 2024 to achieve its objectives.”
Ajayi said Nigeria cannot achieve sustainable development when Federal, States and Local governments focus on only consumptive expenditures which is essentially what recurrent expenditures represent.
“It is the capital expenditures that drive economic growth, strengthen private sector output and create employment opportunities for citizens,” he added.
He cautioned the civic organisation, Budgit, to be wary of flippancy and the propensity to be unduly sensational.
“Expectedly, @PeterObi has jumped on the false claims to push his new round of misinformation,” he said.
In an earlier interview with our correspondent, the Special Adviser to the President on Information and Strategy, Mr. Bayo Onanuga, said the 2023 and 2024 budgets would run simultaneously.
His comments follow a decision by the National Assembly to extend the responsive period of the 2023 budget from June 2024 to December 2024.
It had been moved from December 2023 to March 2024 earlier.
“They are some elements of that (2023) budget that were not implemented. That is why they are moving it forward to be implemented,” explained Onanuga.
He added, “They have already gotten the provisions meant for them. So they are trying to make sure they implement them based on the provision of that budget.
“It means the 2023 and 2024 budget will run concurrently.”
PUNCH Online earlier reported that a non-profit organisation, BudgiT, condemned the proposed elongation of the implementation period of both the 2023 annual and supplementary budget by the Federal Government, describing it as an anomaly.
In a Friday statement by its communications officer, Nancy Odimegwu, BudgiT said it was worrisome that the Federal Government could be drafting a 2024 supplementary budget to be implemented alongside the 2023 yearly budget, 2023 supplementary budget, and 2024 annual budget.